Actor's relatives were well-known in Oconee

At the mention of Louis Gossett Jr.'s name, a smile broke out on June Gennings' face.

``Louis Gossett. That's her cousin. That was Sib's cousin,'' Gennings said outside his home on Morrison Street.

Lizzie ``Sib'' Stephens lived down the street from Gennings, who remembers how the elderly woman would talk about her first cousin, the famous actor.

``I remember that good. She used to tell me about it. She'd let me know when he was on TV,'' said Gennings, who at first thought she was kidding about having a cousin who worked as an actor in Hollywood.

But she wasn't teasing.

After her husband, Govner Stephens, died at the age of 67 on Sept. 30, 1957, she had to move off the farm that her husband operated north of Watkinsville on Mars Hill Road. A nephew built her a house on Morrison Street, where she lived until her death at age 87 on Sept. 22, 1983. For many of those years, she lived in the house with Maderline Moses, who now lives in an Athens personal-care home.

There are people today who remember Govner Stephens. He was well-known among black and white people during his day. Stephens' farm, where Gossett worked those summers, was located on Mars Hill Road in the area across from Windridge Professional Park.

The Stephens had no children.

Lee Nell Brittian, 83, who lives off Daniells Bridge Road, worked for Stephens.

``I worked on his farm 16 years or more,'' Brittian reaclled

``He was good to me and his wife too,'' Brittian said. ``I used to stay with his daddy before I stayed with him. My dad (Henry Brittian) let me stay with him.''

Brittian said Stephens operated a farm on land owned by Jake Joel, a lawyer in Athens.

Joel, who once ran for a state House seat, was among an overflow crowd that came to the funeral for Stephens at Shady Grove Baptist Church.

``It was so big the people couldn't get in,'' Brittian said about the funeral attended by both black and white people.

Stephens' granite monument appears to be the largest in the church cemetery.

After his death, Brittian said Sib Stephens moved into Watkinsville.

``She didn't have nobody to stay there and work the farm. Jake Joel sold the farm.''

While some in the community may dispute this, Brittian maintains that it was Govner Stephens friendship with congresswoman Jeanette Rankin - who voted against the United State's entry into both World Wars - that was primarily responsible for Shady Grove Baptist Church owning its land.

Rankin had a home close to the church, which was organized in 1867. The original building was torn down and a new church built in 1960.

``Some of the deacons will tell you they bought that land for the church,'' Brittian said, but he claims, ``Govner Stephens got her to sell the land.''

Bernard Jordan, a deacon at Shady Grove, remembered Stephens as one of the older men of the church as he was growing up.

``He was just as faithful as he could be. He'd go anywhere to raise money for the church,'' Jordan recalled.

Although Stephens did much for the church, he never served as a deacon as did his father, John Stephens.

Stephens didn't mind getting involved in politics. Jordan remembered how Stephens would campaign for Phil Campbell, who at the time was in the state House of Representatives. In later years, Campbell became the state commissioner of agriculture and a U.S. deputy secretary for agriculture under President Richard Nixon.

Stephens ``thought the world of him. He'd work and try to get him elected,'' Jordan said.

Race relations were different in the 1930s and 1940s, but Watkinsville resident Billy Dawson remembered Stephens as a man who dealt closely with whites.

Stephens was a frequent visitor to the farm of Dawson's grandfather, Abe Jones, on Hog Mountain Road. The Jones home is now the office for St. Mary's Community Outreach Center.

``He was a leader among the black population. He had many friends among prominent white people,'' Dawson said.

``He was an entrepreneur. In his dress, his mannerisms, his speech, his stance, he just commanded respect.''

In the 1930s, Dawson said he saw Stephens and his wife attend Union Christian Church, a white church. But in the same respect, Dawson said he went to Shady Grove.

``They would have a revival at Shady Grove twice a year. They would have morning services. All of us would get cleaned up. My granddaddy would take everybody, white and black. We went to the church service during what was called the lay-back time.

``It was a different kind of life,'' he noted.

Dawson said he did not attend Stephens' funeral, but Jordan remembered it well.

Shady Grove's most prominent preacher, the Rev. E.D. Thomas, who served as pastor for 41 years, was at a convention when Stephens died, so ``a preacher from Monroe preached the funeral,'' Jordan said.